Way back in the early days of the thread I offered up my htoughts on the mindset of continuing to fly until we hear ugly noises then ditch. I acknowledged having been of that persuasion for most my career having flown over some very inhospitable terrain or very unfriendly folks. I also suggested this was a common attitude amongst helicopter pilots.
It took this tragedy to disabuse me of that notion.
It also refreshed my concern about flying over such terrain in weather conditions that made such forced landings so dangerous.
When I heard the Captain make his intentions known to ATC.....knowing the actual outcome of the event....made me sit back and consider how lucky I have been in the past on a couple of occasions when guilty of the same thing.
No doubt there are others posting here that know they too have escaped from that flawed logic and its potentially catastrophic outcome.
I presume few of us hold to that mindset today as a result of the Cougar crash.....that is a postive outcome out of this tragedy.
Ernie Gann in "Fate Is The Hunter" discusses this very aptly.
Last edited by SASless; 25th Feb 2011 at 13:01.